Monday, March 9, 2015

Books In For Review

Check out the books that have just arrived for review!

Living Through the Pain: The Lonely Me by Cathy Kurtz Imagine waking up to your worst nightmare. In 1976, Cathy Kurtz, at the tender age of sixteen, lost her father, mother, oldest brother, and sister-in-law in a private plane crash. In 1989 she lost her surviving brother to AIDS. As a single mother, Cathy struggled to take care of her son while still being haunted by the tragedies of losing her family. Suffering gave Cathy a unique awareness of the pain an individual can live through and still be able to propel their life forward in a productive manner. A Christian upbringing was her only outlet to find peace, and the ability to live through the pain.
Cathy considers her deep understanding of surviving tragedies, and using her pain to enrich her life, as a calling from God to serve others and assist them in finding the courage to move forward. Any young woman who has experienced a tragedy or who has ever been abused and tossed aside as trash will relate to Cathy's journey. Cathy reveals that if she can live through the pain, anyone can be a survivor and have a successful, rich, and blessed life.

Oh! You Pretty Things by Shanna Mahin Jess Dunne is third-generation Hollywood, but her star on the boulevard has yet to materialize. Sure, she’s got a Santa Monica address and a working actress roommate, but with her nowhere barista job in a town that acknowledges zeroes only as a dress size, she’s a dead girl walking. Enter Jess’s mother—a failed actress who puts the strange in estrangement. She dives headlong into her daughter’s downward spiral, forcing Jess to muster all her spite and self-preservation to snag a career upgrade. As a personal assistant for a famous (and secretly agoraphobic) film composer, Jess’s workdays are now filled with shopping for luxury goods and cooking in his perfectly designed kitchen. Jess kills at cooking, a talent that only serves her intensifying urge to dig in to Los Angeles’s celebrity buffet. When her food garners the attention of an actress on the rise, well, she’s all too willing to throw it in with the composer and upgrade again, a decision that will have far-reaching ramifications that could explode all her relationships. All the while, her mother looms ever closer, forcing Jess to confront the traumatic secrets she’s been running from all her life.

Dragon Guardian: Fire (Volume 1) by Aida Jacob Primordya was once a world of peace where man, dwarf and elf lived in harmony while aligning themselves against their common enemy--the dark elves. But such a balance could not last forever. Having enslaved the dwarves, the dark elves--led by their queen, Nahga--have now turned their ambitious gaze to the surface world. The realm of man was the first to fall, and the realm of the elves hangs on by a mere thread. Unwillingly thrust into a war that was centuries in the making, Princess Marin Draconya must brave her way through the wilds after her parents and sister are viciously murdered by Nahga. Taken under the wing of the powerful mage, Nicodemus, Marin learns not only to master the raw magic coursing through her veins, but also of her true destiny as a Dragon Guardian--a rare and powerful mage with the ability to command all dragons. In order to achieve this destiny, Marin must journey to the shrines of the four Elemental Dragons and prove to them that she is indeed worthy of her birthright. Only then will she be able to unite the people of Primordya under a unified banner and defeat Nahga and her massive army.

The Good, the Bad and the Furry by Tom Cox

TIME-LIFE Mysteries of the Criminal Mind: The Secrets Behind the World's Most Notorious Crimes Is it nature or nurture that shapes a serial killer? What drives a person to become a kidnapper or a terrorist? And can such behaviors be predicted--or even stopped before they occur? As advances in science unlock the secrets of our DNA and reveal the inner workings of the human brain, Time-Life Books explores the fascinating findings that are shedding new light on the criminal mind. What role does birth order, divorce, media influence, and other societal pressures play in how criminals are formed? By examining some of the most notorious criminals from history and our modern era--from Al Capone and Charles Manson to Scott Peterson and Dzohkhar Tsarnaev--and their characteristics, the nature of their deeds and the possible formation of their pathologies. Readers will explore the roots of crime, going on the streets to meet the authorities who deal with criminals on a daily basis and have developed unique insights into the criminal mentality.